The Italian Definite Article

Ciao! In this lesson you will learn to correctly use the Italian Definitive article… what we call ARTICOLO DETERMINATIVO

The Definitive article in Italian is a little bit more complicated to that of English… so be aware that it might take a bit to fully understand it… the first thing that you need to keep in mind is that

We must be able to identify and choose the correct article based on gender and quantity. So understanding gender and number of nous is very important! If you need to review the video s on this topic please click in the links below:

The Gender of Italian Nouns

Singular and Plural Nouns in Italian

When will you use the definite article?

You will use the definite article (Articolo determinativo) to identify specific objects or people that the person reading or listening is already aware of.

Here is a chart with the different forms of this article. You can download the full lesson and the chart by clicking here.

Download the chart and use it to review or to practice! 

Let’s first look at article that you will use when you have singular nouns.

If it’s a masculine noun your options are

IL or LO  or L apostrophe

if you have a femminine noun your options are LA or L’

For plural masculine nouns you can choose from I or GLI and for femminine plural nouns you have one option which is LE

Now let’s understand the rules of when to use each of the articles depending on gender and number.

For MASCULINE NOUNS you have to use

LO and GLI - before words that begin with  X Y Z S+consonant GN - PS - PN

here are some examples of singular and plural nouns with the correct article:

• x - lo xilofono - gli xilofoni
• y - lo yogurt - gli yogurt
• z - lo zaino - gli zaini
• s + consonante (sc, sp, st…) - lo studente - gli studenti
• gn - lo gnomo - gli gnomi
• ps - lo psicologo - gli psicologi
• pn - lo pneumatico - gli pneumatici

You will use L’ - before singular masculine nouns that begin with a vowel!

The plural version is  GLI

For example:

• l’albergo - gli alberghi
• l’armadio - gli armadi

IL and I will be used before masculine nouns that begin with other consonants not mentioned in the first rule with LO and GLI:

• il libro - i libri
• il fiore - i fiori
• il quaderno - i quaderni

The rules for the femminine articles are easier… you will use LA with singular nouns and LE for plural nouns

Just like for masculine nouns the article LA will be abbreviated to L’ when there is a vowel:

l’onda - le onde

I know that in some languages articles do not exist… and that in some others gender and number doesn’t exist either… tell me… Does your language have articles?

Check out italianlanguagehub.com for updates and new exercises and materials!